-läste jag i tidningen om Björn Ranelids skryt över sitt författaskap (skojar han eller?!)

-såg jag en man slänga en gräsklippare i luckan för metallförpackningar i återvinningskontainern (Hm)

-såg jag ett par tända en trädgårdsgrill förmodligen för första gången (mycket tändvätska över lågorna)

The movement towards planetary sanity has already accelerated to the point where it's now dragging "green" (in its shallow pop-culture sense) along behind it like an anchor. We're way past the stage of voluntary half-measures and into an era of widespread innovation, high standards and systemic change. Anything less merely distracts us from the goal.

Imagine a future that works -- that's what we must do! Not in a mushy, vague, feel-good sense, but in a concrete way; in a way that proclaims the transience of the world around us and the possibility before us.…

At the same time, we also think that this is a moment when we all need many more people iterating their ideas for real change. So, as a starter for that kind of conversation, we're holding a little collaborative challenge.

The idea is simple: share, in words, images or sounds, your idea for the end of some outdated aspect of contemporary society and its replacement with a better way of doing things. Start with the phrase, "Imagine no..."

Then put a link to your entry (or the text itself) in the comments [here].

The best examples we know about in two weeks will get prominent coverage here on Worldchanging, and we have some swanky prizes for the folks who do the best job. In the spirit of testing the rope first, we've come up with a few examples ourselves, merely (we hope) provocations for thought. We would love to know which ones you like!

Imagine no garbage cans. Imagine recycling everything that comes through your door. It's not a pipe dream. With a new generation of zero-waste approaches, cities are building systems where everything you buy is designed to be recycled, composted, or disassembled and reused.…

Imagine no warning labels. Imagine bringing nothing into your home that isn't safe for you, your children or your pets.…

Imagine what comes after green.

no, wait.

imagine what comes alongside green, for a lot more people.

ah,

that rich rich/poor / poor rich/rich poor / poor rich/poor dichotomy.

[audio http://homepage.mac.com/chromoturtle/bacu/plekete.mp3]

Ritmul muzicii zboara spre mine,

Visez, realitatea spre noi vine,

Dansez si te observ pe tine...

Zambesti in coltul tau,

Aduci lumii fericire,

O scapi de tot ce-i rau,

Dansand in nemurire...

Te indrepti spre mine,

Zambetul dispare,

Apare fericire...

Si zambesti spre Soare.

Sub magie si lumina,

Am dansat noi doi,

Lumea devine iar putina,

Face loc iubirii dintre noi...

Sa dansam, sa ne iubim...

Asta noi traim...

Asta ne dorim...

Asta visam... atunci cand iar murim...

   Titlul este vag , ştiu . Dar cum IRC-ul e mai cunoscut , că e mai vechi , merită să stea în frunte . Măcar ironic şi tot îşi găseşte locul . Într-un război , dacă nu te cunoşti pe tine , cu siguranţă vei pierde . Dacă nu-ţi cunoşti adversarul , probabil , în jumătate din cazuri , vei pierde . Statistic , legendar , dar ce treabă are cu terapia noastră ? Dacă ajungi să înţelegi de ce intră lumea pe IRC ( şi aici nu mă refer la puştimea care o face de curiozitate sau să-şi etaleze cocoşelul în faţa unei prea-frumoase domniţe ) , îi poţi ajuta . Lumea preferă să-şi descarce cutiuţa cu fantezii , frustrări şi depresii în acest mediu virtual , decât să dea banii vreunui psiholog . Normal , e mai ieftin , e mai accesibil , e mai uşor . E anonim . Vorba aia : "pe net nu ştie nimeni că eşti câine" .

   IRC-ul acţionează ca un psiholog virtual ? Omul este un animal social . Şi are nevoie să se exprime . Are nevoie să se descarce pentru a nu cumula stresul înauntrul său . Fie c-o face printr-o partidă de sex , fie că discută cu cineva pe IRC sau îşi scrie povestea pe un forum , el încearcă să se descarce . Este un lucru bun , dacă n-ar face-o , probabil lumea ar fi mult mai rea şi s-ar petrece chestii mult mai nasoale . Dacă nu ştiaţi , site-urile cu 3 de x , au micşorat rata violurilor cu 70 % . Nu ştiu cât de adevărată e ştirea sau pe unde s-a întâmplat asta , dar la o rumegare mai atentă , pare adevărat . Deci da , IRC-ul acţionează ca un psiholog virtual . Oricând , oriunde , pentru oricine .

   Internet-ul , groapa de "gunoi" a depresiilor . Nici că puteam să îi dau un titlu mai pompos . Internetul în sine , ca o reţea de comunicaţii , a avut bineînţeles rolul de comunicare . Practic rolul asta îl are şi la ora actuală . Fie că obţin informaţia prin intermediul unui site , prin intermediul unui canal de chat sau prin video streaming . Exemplele sunt nenumărate , ştiu . Încetul cu încetul , odată ce majoritatea oamenilor ( circa 20 % din locuitorii de pe glob ) au început să aibă acces la internet , lucrurile au început să se schimbe . Omul a simţit nevoia să îşi verse lucrurile ălea mai urâte pe net . Se spune că există trei tipuri de oameni . Cei care atunci când se enervează înjură , cei care atunci când se enervează înjură , dar mai pe ascuns şi cei care omoară . Eu aş spune că secolul 21 ne aduce şi categoria de oameni care se confesează psihologului Net , atunci când au o problemă . Şi gândeşte-te , cu ajutorul acestui psiholog virtual , se va reduce cu mult din categoria celor care omoară , violează sau fac alte chestii urâte . De altfel , rezultatele sunt vizibile , statistic . Deşi îngropăm netul pe zi ce trece cu tot felul de prostioare , rezultatul este unul benefic .

   Ce face un psiholog "real" ..  într-o lume dominată de psihologul virtual universal ? Bună întrebare , nu ? Dacă oamenilor le este mult mai uşor să se confeseze unui necunoscut pe IRC sau oriunde în altă parte , ce rol mai au psihologii zilelor noastre ? Şi mă refer la un psiholog care se respectă şi nu-şi face treaba doar ca pe o meserie . Odată ce psihologul virtual analizează cazurile şi "încearcă" să le ajute , psihologul real poate doar să controleze evoluţia psihologului virtual . Dacă rata violurilor creşte alarmant într-o regiune , faci cum faci şi le mai zvârli nişte site-uri pron ori le dai acces la acestea . Odată ce omul şi-a exprimat dorinţa arzătoare cu ajutorul net-ului , scad şansele ca acesta să mai aibă nevoie să-şi exprime dorinţele în societate . Putem discuta aici despre controlul depresiilor , minimalizarea stresului prin aparaţia a tot felul de site-uri comic-o panarame şi alte cele . Totul are un scop precis , chiar de creatorul nu s-a gândit la el .

   Arta manipulării prin intermediul Internetului ? Odată ce lumea se bazează atât de mult pe factorul psihologic virtual , înseamnă că undeva avem o problemă . Dacă acel cineva ar vrea să controleze masele , nu i-ar fi greu . Trebuie doar să ştie de ce au nevoie oamenii în momentul respectiv şi să-l introducă pe piaţă . Forţezi oamenii să muncească mai mult , dar le oferi mai multe metode de a se confesa pe Internet . O altă formă de manipulare prin prezentarea adevărului , o reprezintă filmele documentare . Acolo oricine poate descoperi lucruri foarte interesante , în parte adevărate . Însă vizionarea acestor filme nu duce la cunoaştere absolută sau descoperirea adevărului universal , cât nevoia de a viziona alte filme şi tot aşa . Psihologul virtual se ocupă de modul în care tu gândeşti . Psihologul virtual este mereu alături de tine atunci când ai probleme sau te simţi rău . Psihologul real însă îl ţine în frâu şi-l ghidează după propiile dorinţe . Şi prin psihologul real mă refer la factorul uman care conştient sau nu propagă pe Internet diverse ton-uri , site-uri sau materiale interesante .

   Concluzie : Ce doreşte să evidenţieze Fără Sens prin intermediul acestor idei ? Fie că vrea să te lumineze şi să te facă să gândeşti . Fie vrea să te "aburească" mai tare şi să-ţi demonstreze altceva decât scrie aici . Tu decizi !

O parere mai raspandita, de o larga acceptabilitate si de bun simt dealtfel, este aceea ca nu doar simpla existenta, viata, ne ofera statutul de OM, ci si constiinta de sine, gandirea, capacitatea de a rationa, de a face asocieri ideatice, de a distinge intre bine si rau.

Ei, in acest punct intram pe un teren extrem de alunecos, intrucat ideea de constiinta a fost indelung disputata de marii psihologi care au incercat sa o defineasca. Voi cum ati defini-o?

Indiferent de definitiile pe care le-au dat unul si altul, TOTI au fost de acord cu ideea ca psihologia nu este o stiinta exacta, ca matematica, unde 1+1=2 (in majoritatea cazurilor… pentru ca se poate demonstra matematic si ca 1+1 nu fac doi… dar asta e o alta poveste). Avem de-a face cu un domeniu extrem de delicat, in care cunoasterea se face pas cu pas si se speculeaza destul de mult, se emit multe ipoteze in lipsa unor certitudini evidente. Asta inseamna ca oricand exista posibilitatea de a gresi. Bunaoara cu privire la momentul in care capatam aceasta constiinta: la conceptie? la nastere? la o anumita varsta? Si cum - instantaneu? Treptat?

Unul din argumentele pro-avort este acela ca fetusul nu ar poseda aceasta constiinta si, implicit, nu ar fi nici o problema in a-i curma evolutia. Nu pot sa nu intreb insa, ca psiholog, teolog, sociolog... Cum poate fi cineva absolut sigur de asta? Cum poti fi absolut sigur ca nu exista o forma incipienta a acestei componente a psihicului uman, asa cum fatul poseda picioare, desi inca nu a exersat mersul si, implicit, nu poate INCA merge?

Argumentele care ma determina sa sustin existenta unei asemenea forme de constiinta sunt multiple, desi cele mai la indemana sunt acelea ca bebelusii (inclusiv cei prematuri, nascuti in diverse luni ale sarcinii) recunosc sunete, voci, melodii… Deci nu sunt doar o masa amorfa si inerta, ci poseda intreaga capacitate si potential care vor fi dezvoltate ulterior, pe tot parcursul existentei lor umane, doar ca acestea nu sunt INCA exersate, utilizate...

Altfel spus, asa cum fatul are picioare, dar nu poate merge, are corzi vocale, dar nu poate vorbi, are stomac si intestine, are anus si organe genitale, desi nu le-a folosit pana in momentul nasterii sale si inca o buna bucata de vreme, de la caz la caz, este extrem de plauzibil sa credem ca el detine si acea “capacitate de a face distincţii, de a separa si uni lucruri, in gând sau prin intermediul limbajului, de a spune Eu sunt eu, de a discerne adevaratul si falsul”. Eu cred cu tarie ca fatul poseda o faza incipienta a unei constiinte inca nemanifestate din motive obiective, asa cum se intampla si in cazul mersului, al utilizarii corzilor vocale, al stomacului, al intestinelor ori al organelor genitale, ceea ce-l face pe acesta OM. Om la fel ca si noi, cu acelasi numar de cromozomi, cu acelasi potential, dar si cu aceleasi drepturi... Iar asta pune serios in discutie libertatea si usurinta cu care se recurge la avort, pana acolo incat inclusiv in zilele noastre exista cupluri care-l considera (si utilizeaza ca atare) drept o metoda contraceptiva la fel ca oricare alta...

A, era sa uit... Am gasit aici un articol referitor la o serie de cercetari care par a-mi sustine teza...

Like a lot of people, it seems to me that all these problems are bigger than any of the solutions that have thus far been proposed for them, and that's been worrying me.

has it. has it indeed.

I'm convinced that one reason we've seemed paralyzed in the face of these crises is our tendency to offer old solutions to each crisis separately -- without taking the others into account. And these outdated proposals have not only been ineffective -- they almost always make the other crises even worse.

sad isn't it.

But if we grab hold of that common thread and pull it hard, all of these complex problems begin to unravel and we will find that we're holding the answer to all of them right in our hand.

The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels.

(applause)

The quickest, cheapest and best way to start using all this renewable energy is in the production of electricity. In fact, we can start right now using solar power, wind power and geothermal power to make electricity for our homes and businesses.

mnh.

Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.

woah!

This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans -- in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.

mnh!

To those who say the costs are still too high: I ask them to consider whether the costs of oil and coal will ever stop increasing if we keep relying on quickly depleting energy sources to feed a rapidly growing demand all around the world. When demand for oil and coal increases, their price goes up. When demand for solar cells increases, the price often comes down.

like with this trick.

When we send money to foreign countries to buy nearly 70 percent of the oil we use every day, they build new skyscrapers and we lose jobs. When we spend that money building solar arrays and windmills, we build competitive industries and gain jobs here at home.

homeland economics 101.

To those who say [350] is not enough time, I respectfully ask them to consider what the world's scientists are telling us about the risks we face if we don't act in [350]. The leading experts predict that we have less than [350] to make dramatic changes in our global warming pollution lest we lose our ability to ever recover from this environmental crisis. When the use of oil and coal goes up, pollution goes up. When the use of solar, wind and geothermal increases, pollution comes down.

350.

I for one do not believe our country can withstand 10 more years of the status quo. Our families cannot stand 10 more years of gas price increases. Our workers cannot stand 10 more years of job losses and outsourcing of factories. Our economy cannot stand 10 more years of sending $2 billion every 24 hours to foreign countries for oil. And our soldiers and their families cannot take another 10 years of repeated troop deployments to dangerous regions that just happen to have large oil supplies.

bring them home now! let them get dirty, fixing watersheds, and shit. make living things, with those same hands.

[A] political promise to do something 40 years from now is universally ignored because everyone knows that it's meaningless. Ten years is about the maximum time that we as a nation can hold a steady aim and hit our target.

in fact, i've already forgotten who's talking... oh, right, the not-bush guy.

unified national grid ... plug-in electric cars ... efficiency and conservation ... adequate provisions to assist those Americans who would unfairly face hardship ... tax what we burn, not what we earn ... rejoin the global community and lead efforts to secure an international treaty

yup.

If you want to know the truth about gasoline prices,

no.

here it is:

dammit.

here it is: the exploding demand for oil, especially in places like China, is overwhelming the rate of new discoveries by so much that oil prices are almost certain to continue upward over time no matter what the oil companies promise. And politicians cannot bring gasoline prices down in the short term.

However, there actually is one extremely effective way to bring the costs of driving a car way down within a few short years. The way to bring gas prices down is to end our dependence on oil and use the renewable sources that can give us the equivalent of $1 per gallon gasoline.

please, also use technologies that can give us the equivalent of a car trip.

Many Americans have begun to wonder whether or not we've simply lost our appetite for bold policy solutions.

...that didn't involve murder.

And folks who claim to know how our system works these days have told us we might as well forget about our political system doing anything bold, especially if it is contrary to the wishes of special interests.

i thought guaranteeing economic meltdown was energetic! if unoriginal.

But I've begun to hear different voices in this country from people who are not only tired of baby steps and special interest politics, but are hungry for a new, different and bold approach.…

We must now lift our nation to reach another goal that will change history.… Once again, we have an opportunity to take a giant leap for humankind.

*clap clap clap clap*

read the whole speech here or watch it, um, in either place.

ps. what's special about plan bee? for one thing, you can read it online!

pps. ugh, the partisan nimrods, applauding economic catastrophes.

ppps. one lonely blogger's attempt to make a better speech.

He mentioned geothermal, but didn't mention ground source (sometimes called geothermal heating/cooling) heat pump heating/cooling of buildings. That's good for 36% of GHG elimination, with renewable electricity powering it.

Geothermal electric power is just too water intensive and eathquake prone to be practical. Wind, solar, wave, ocean current power, and biogas/organic ag, that is enough power without geothermal. And by harvesting coastal wind/wave power and using biogas for distributed grid backup,the huge grid upgrade isn't needed.

Present grid transmission capacity would be enough, but the grid would have to be transformed into a distributed smart grid.

He should add direct subsidies to the plan, 5 to 10 cents per kwh for renewable generation and conservation. The subsidies diverted from fossil fuel industries.

As far as letting nukes keep running? Yes, until they can be phased out by renewables. They would provide enough baseload power to transition to a grid that doesn't operate on the old 100% dispatchable central design.

And plugin electric cars, should have read, plugin hybrids. And transitioning eventually to zero emission pure plugin electric cars as batteries get better over the next decade.

Great inspiration though! Go Al! Just mind these changes. Feel free to call me for more suggestions anytime, hehehey. But seriously, thanks for your efforts!

i didn't say the blogger was bitter or melancholy! just lonely.

pppps. oh! the time for plan b press conference! 's'about an hour. from here.

[audio http://homepage.mac.com/chromoturtle/bacu/time-for-plan-b-2july08.mp3]

ppppps. ho-o-o-o-oh, moveon forwarded the movie to theirself.

Can we really get all our electricity from sources like solar and wind in 10 short years?

Scientists have confirmed that enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world's energy needs for a full year. Tapping just a small portion of this solar energy could provide all of the electricity America uses.

And enough wind power blows through the Midwest corridor every day to also meet 100 percent of US electricity demand.

And of course, all this means more good jobs to re-power our economy:

When we send money to foreign countries to buy nearly 70 percent of the oil we use every day, they build new skyscrapers and we lose jobs. When we spend that money building solar arrays and windmills, we build competitive industries and gain jobs here at home.

now millions and millions will see it. already it's up by 250%! buy buy buy!

but they won't know about the whole plan. maybe we need to build up to it.

ppppppppps. really really need more expert eyes on particular parts of that plan. open source the sucker.

edit. switched to pointing at the campaign's transcript page. you can still visit the blog link.

do "US environmentalists finally have a leader"? is al my king, my kennedy, my césar chávez? my hero, my deliverer? would i weep for him?

we've been coming at these resource problems as long as we've been approaching these resource problems and we still find people, themselves on fire, saying, "let me burn a little longer, tomorrow's hospital will be even better," and i don't think that's from a lack of leadership or vision.

maybe i'd rather ask if al is the highest ranking american green since teddy.

authority ≠ leadership, eh.

OM NOM NOM NOM

picture: rotll
caption: me

we must be right on top of the important changes today demands.

will television teach us? will we change it, to meet our needs?

Here's where it gets sticky. No one who knows about third rails in US politics would expect the candidates or the fawning corporate media (FCM) to address how those now running Israel are likely to be looking at the implications of a large US troop withdrawal from Iraq next year.

I am remembering how I was pilloried ... for a candid answer ... if the invasion of Iraq was not about WMD, and not about non-existent ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda, then why did we attack?

In answer, I used the acronym OIL. O for oil; I for Israel; and L for Logistics, meaning the military bases deemed by neoconservatives as necessary to protect both. Neither the House members present nor the media people seemed to have any problem with oil and military bases as factors -- in itself an interesting commentary.

However, the suggestion that one main motive was an attempt to make that part of the Middle East safer for Israel (yes, folks, the neocons really thought that attacking Iraq would do that) -- well, that was anathema.

As it is anathema today to suggest that this is still one of the main reasons, besides oil, that Elliott Abrams, other neocons -- not to mention Vice President Dick Cheney and his team -- insist we must stay, Maliki and his associates be damned. (See the cartoon in the Washington Times today showing Maliki and words telling him "We are NOT leaving.")

Here in Washington we can sit back and quibble over the implications of such remarks by Maliki and other Iraqi leaders. The Israelis have to take such statements seriously. No agreement on US forces staying into 2009 without a timetable for withdrawal? For Tel Aviv, this is getting very serious.

My guess is the Israeli leaders are apoplectic. The fiasco in Iraq clearly has made the region much more dangerous for Israel.…

Viewed from Tel Aviv it appears an increasingly threatening situation, with more urgent need to "embed" (so to speak) the United States even more deeply in the region -- in a confrontation involving both countries with Iran.

based on this i'm taking the bubbly offer of diplomatic presence in iran, combined with the "amber light," as an alibi, and one only a belligerent congresscritter would swallow, or an FCMer (love that), and that's all ya need, isn't it.

A charter amendment for renewable energy and public power appears headed for the November ballot, and already Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is rounding up front groups and touting inaccurate figures in an attempt to scuttle the plan.…

If passed, San Francisco would exceed state standards by requiring 51 percent clean, renewable energy by 2017; 75 percent by 2030; and 100 percent by 2040. Workforce development is also part of the plan, and if it's determined that public ownership of the grid is the way to go, any employees fired by PG&E will be hired by the SFPUC.…

Other public comments overwhelmingly supported the measure. Some energy activists have been concerned that the legislation would derail or delay efforts to move toward renewables through the community choice aggregation (CCA) program.

*klik*

Back in 2001, San Francisco came within 500 votes of approving a public power system … And it's hard to see how we could have done it without organized labor.

The Central Labor Council backed public power. Service Employees International Union Local 790 poured resources into it. The labor-environmental coalition that came together around building a city-run system that would rely on clean energy was unprecedented.…

The Clean Energy Act ... would give the city control of its energy future and put San Francisco at the forefront of national efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

It also opens the door to public power [and] PG&E [is trying] to keep the supervisors from putting it on the ballot, and to defeat it if they do.

[They have] a powerful weapon to use: labor's determination to pass a giant bond act to rebuild San Francisco General Hospital.

*klik*

[The Clean Energy Act] would also mesh with all of the mayor's environmental goals.…

Newsom needs to support the Clean Energy Act. If he doesn't, it will demonstrate that he lacks the backbone to stand up to special interests -- and has no business running for governor of this state.

*klik*

It's crunch time for high speed rail in California, a project 12 years in the planning that will finally go before voters in November, following a controversial July 9 vote in San Francisco on the system's Bay Area alignment and ongoing political struggles in Sacramento.…

Perhaps most important in these times of heightened environmental concern, the system is now proposed to run entirely on renewable energy sources and would use about one-third of the energy of air travel and one-fifth that of driving….…

Tim Frank ... represented the Sierra Club of California and praised CHSRA staff for addressing most of the group's concerns.

"The opportunity to get people out of cars and out of airplanes and get them into steel wheels running on steel track is very important," Frank said, noting that the project was essential to meeting the state's goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

*klik*

Environmentalists are pondering the state's seemingly schizophrenic approach to fighting climate change after a recent state report encouraging increased use of mass transit came out at the same time that the governor's budget proposal denies the state's public transportation fund more than $1 billion.

The California Air Resource Board's June 26 Draft Scoping Plan to combat global warming, released pursuant to Assembly Bill 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, is at least the second major report this year to recommend expanding public transit. But the governor's latest spending plan redirects that sizeable chunk of money -- gasoline tax revenue that voters who approved Prop. 42 in 2002 directed toward transportation projects and agencies -- to help reduce the state's $17 billion budget deficit.…

At the same time, billions of dollars have been allocated to highway expansion programs, exacerbating the global warming problem.

"Anybody's budget should be a reflection of their values, whether it's an individual or an agency," said Carli Paine, transportation program director for the Transportation and Land Use Coalition. "The state is saying, 'We value public transportation as a climate friendly choice.' Yet when it comes to expressing those values in the budget, we say, 'It doesn't matter that much,' so we're actually undermining those original statements."

The governor's revised state budget allocated $306 million to the State Transit Assistance Program, the state's source of funding for mass transit operating costs such as maintenance, drivers, fuel, and mechanics.

This is the same amount that was allocated last year, even though transit ridership is the highest it has been in more than 50 years, according to a June report by the American Public Transportation Association. And factor in that crude oil is about $140 per barrel now compared to about $73 per barrel this time in 2007, according to the Energy Information Administration, a federal agency. "The budget is kicking transit in the teeth when it needs it [money] the most," Radulovich said.

remember back when warren buffett said his california properties were ridiculously undertaxed and mr schwarzenegger's campaign threw him off "the simple talk express" while it was still moving?

mr schwarzenegger believes in balancing the budget on the back of the future. wealth taxes kill! ok. as long as who you borrow from doesn't know they're lending -- especially "kids and animals," as james hansen says -- you are still a true genius.

ps. is this the future? i mean it's hard to see how an industrial california would be workable without fast trains but what are los angeles and the san francisco bay without global trade? what does a localized western economy look like? it's always been about the ports. no that's really not any argument against replacing the cars, trucks, and jets and shrinking the road work.

pps. nothing here on integrating fast passenger trains with new long-haul-by-rail traffic.

the next day. oh yeah! i forgot that something like 40% of cargo freight is coal for power plants! so now how much infrastructure is needed. mostly breakbulk and the pretty hybrid deliv'ry trux.…

you want us to make a bet
that climate change won't be overwhelming or painful

based on how northernly latitudinal america
is in a good position to ride out the worst
as you imagine it

the temperate regions've got our back
so let it ride

news flash:
the biosphere
is overleveraged

not
that
trivia
should
encumber
the mind of
a fucking

junkie

ps.

nader edition:

So now only the American taxpayers and their creditworthiness inside a deficit-ridden government and a debt-loaded Federal Reserve stand in the way of a far bigger financial collapse than the stock market crash of 1929. Will it be done smartly this time around?

pps.

zeno paradox edition:

The energy crisis. Bank failures and economic recession. Climate chaos, crop failure, and unpredictable weather. The health crisis. The food and farming crisis. An endless, murderous, multi-trillion dollar war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Patriot Act, Homeland Security, an evermore-powerful Shadow Government. An ongoing, pre-meditated assault on Constitutional liberties. An epidemic of social and psychological malaise, hopelessness, and ethical disorientation. Bought and stolen elections and an indentured mass media. Out-of-control politicians, corporations, and technology. Self-destructive hyper-consumerism and the Wal-Martization of the economy. Institutionalized robbery by a billionaire class oblivious to growing poverty and misery… Will we look back on 2008, as the year we tried to change drivers, but still couldn't stop the car from going over the cliff?

Millions of Americans, especially the "netroots," those drawing their information and inspiration from the open sources of the internet, are finally connecting the dots between the burning issues, moving beyond limited concerns to radical awareness. A politicized new majority is waking up to the fact that the proverbial "end" is near. We must move beyond "business as usual" and tepid reform. We must link together our burning issues, unite our heretofore-fragmented forces and communities into a qualitatively more powerful current, and press and confront the Fortune 500 and the nation's thousands of elected public officials -- before it's too late. In these dangerous, careening times we have no choice but to grab the wheel from Democratic Party hacks and fake netroots and grassroots leaders, make a sharp radical turn, and accelerate along the path of grassroots and netroots resistance, from Main Street to Manhattan, from City Hall to the Capitol.

The crazed neo-con project for world domination, aided and abetted by profit-obsessed multinational corporations; countered feebly by the "loyal opposition" of centrist Democrats, single-issue public interest groups, and top-down "progressive" organizations like MoveOn, have brought us to the precipice. Radical crises demand radical remedies. The "road to the right" that the Democrats and Obama are taking is suicidal. Either we mobilize a revitalized Movement to take to the streets and the suites of the corporations and the politicians or we're going over the cliff. Move over MoveOn. We will not sit by and watch our Netroots Nation devolve into a nation of sheep and lemmings.

j/k about the zeno thing. i think grassrootsnetroots.org is good.

followed closely, of course, by an unspecified amount of nuclear power, which generates electricity, you know. you can build thermoelectric power plants that run on uranium! you can build dozens of gigawatts of capacity in just a decade! why, with fission alone, you could probably replace 5% of current energy use in 20 years! aren't they something. those atoms. woo hoo hoo.

and hydrogen cars! people have built them. they run. you can't say that about any other greener cars, now can you! and they only cost 25 times more than a hand-converted prius plug-in! but don't worry, "we might be looking at a viable hydrogen-powered vehicle for the mass market at the price of a luxury car within eight to 10 years." might? yeah that's what i'm talking about. woo hoo hoo.

did i mention that carbon capture and storage is an important project. well, let me tell you how important. without it, we have no other plan! literally nothing! so i hope CCS works or we'll all be dead.

see how i've grown, not complaining the word "wind" wasn't once in the article.

or maybe it's a mirage, maybe after reading the adventures of fannie and freddie all day today... i'm numb... and outnumbered... by such experts.

ps. picked up an MPG-readout gizmo. tell you more about it later.

and we have our dust bowl and it is potentially most everything.

and we have our ethnic visionaries with thousand-year wrecking balls, writing history with lightning, again. what is it with them and lightning.

all we were missing was a house of cards a hundred high all resting on one card that nobody clearly remembers seeing when they were last on the ground as if the ground had anything to do with geniuses and the future which it doesn't.

and...

action!

the movie -- sudden impact, don'cha know -- turns out to have been a study in the ethics of frontier justice with/out state blessing, set in and around a lurid matinee noir complete with a killer lesbian, dirty effeminate drunks, and a young woman driven mad by rape.

cowboy's context is out of context and he knows it. pretty.

ps. shame fritz lang didn't live to see it. well what can you do.

pps. ah but in the end he is pressed to choose and sanctions the vengeance. quite the complicated set of conditions tho. for instance what if the victim lady hadn't been a tortured artist who sometimes didn't wear a bra in public! decisions decisions.

It asked: "As far as you know, does McCain support or oppose a timetable for when troops will be withdrawn from Iraq? What about Obama?" Three-quarters knew that Obama supports a timetable. But only 62% knew that McCain opposes it.

yes, this is the citizenry the supreme court thinks forms "a well regulated militia."

it is none other.

ps. the question to ask next, then, is probably, "you said we should stay until the job is done. how close do you think we are to finishing the job?"

Why isn't there cut and paste? Apple has a priority list of features, and they got as far as they could down that list with this model, Joswiak said. In other words, they don't have anything against cut and paste. They just judged other things to be more important.

a sample from their list:

...
1502. solve that thing where the landscape keyboard only lets you see one pop-up menu item at a time and you have less than a centimeter's room for scrolling the fucking list

1503. re-invent GUI to allow both magnifying loupe and action menus
...

ok i think that's funny but unfair. after all the new OS has a gizmo to touch-and-hold-to-save-this-image. that's very close to how i think clipboard functionality would roll in.

Okay, so where's the iPhone office suite? Dataviz told us yesterday that unspecified technical issues were holding up the development of office suites for the iPhone. Joswiak said he didn't know of any such hold-ups, but then added that there might be issues with applications each having their own file space. "There's no cross-application file structure," he said.

"we just left it out. not sure how. in the next release your application should be able to work with data from another application, without begging, depending on how well steve likes you, if you (nudge, wink) get my meaning."

ps. "for another 5 minutes' chat about future iphones, insert credit card."

Red-Bull
Pour la première fois dans la Vème République, en ce qui concerne la commercialisation de cette boisson énergisante, c'est la ministre du budget et des finances Mme Christine Lagarde qui a eu le dernier mot face à la ministre de la Santé Mme Roselyne Bachelot. Malgré l'avis négatif de l'AFSSA et d'autres experts qui ont pourtant "de la bouteille" ;-), la Red-Bull qui n'est pas, comme on entend trop souvent, composée de spermatozoïdes de taureau, mais d'un acide aminé appelé la taurine, est en vente libre en France. De peur d'avoir un procès sur le dos, la France de Sarkozy, au courage illimité, a donc plié devant un industriel. Et tant pis si la santé publique est en jeu. Tant pis aussi si cette boisson est utilisée, à raison, par les jeunes pour augmenter leur tolérance à l'alcool lors des soirées étudiantes et autres "teuf" remplies d'energy drink.
Alors que parallèlement à ça, Roselyne Bachelot souhaite faire passer une loi pour interdire totalement la vente d'alcool aux mineurs et l'organisation des open-bars, événements où pour un prix forfaitaire vous pouvez consommer de l'alcool sans limite. Réveils difficiles voire crise de foie assurée. Pauvre Roselyne, pauvre jeunesse sacrifiée sur l'autel des profits.

Socatri-Areva
Preuve que cela ne date pas d'hier, l'abus de pouvoir des industriels n'est pas né d'aujourd'hui. Comme le détail plus précisément cet article ici, la CRIIRAD a découvert le 4 juillet un tumulus de déchets radioactifs et toxiques vieux de 30 ans, 15 000m cube!, dans un terrain du CEA (actionnaire d'Areva) au nord de la centrale de Tricastin. 30ans durant lesquels l'Autorité de Sureté Nucléaire a fermé gentiment les yeux. Le 8 juillet, on annonçait étrangement une fuite d'uranium de manière officielle dans l'usine SOCATRI de Bollène située au sud-ouest de la centrale nucléaire. Hier,15 juillet, les médias nous apprenaient qu'une pollution anormale et radioactive a été détectée à 2Km de l'usine de retraitement de déchets nucléaires. Le nucléaire est une technologie si puissante et si innovante que des financiers ont vu le potentiel et s'en sont emparés. Malheureusement pour l'environnement et l'Humanité.

Crédit Lyonnais et Sarkozisme
Avec la crise des subprimes, on a bien vu aussi que les industriels n'étaient pas les seuls à enfreindre les règles de l'éthique de leur propre profession. 13 ans après les faits, la revente par le Crédit Lyonnais d'Adidas avec une marge exhorbitante alors que Tapie leur avait vendu deux fois moins cher, Tapie obtient réparation. Pour une fois, c'est un peu le pot de terre qui gagne contre le pot de fer. Pot de terre Deluxe certes.
Mais étrangement quand les intérêts des amis du Président sont en jeu, le Président peut reprendre la main sur les puissants financiers. La politique et ses réseaux se chargeant du reste.
Ainsi on constate Tapie a soutenu Sarkozy durant sa campagne et qu'il est aussi l'ami de Jean-Louis Borloo, actuellement ministre de l'écologie et du développement durable.
En 2005 déjà, l'amende record infligée à le Consortium de Réalisation (CDR), structure publique de liquidation des actifs du Crédit lyonnais, avait créé la surprise en passant de 498 millions de francs (soit 75 millions d'euros) à 135 millions d'euros. Mais sous l'ère des amis, Tapie est un opportuniste pur et dur, l'amende explose à 289 millions d'euros. L'inflation certainement.
Selon que vous serez puissant ou misérable, etc...

Renault
Tremblement de terre dans les rédactions des journaux automobiles. Suite à une plainte de Renault pour "espionnage industriel", la police a perquisitionné durant 8 heures (sic!) les bureaux et le domicile familial d'un journaliste de la rédaction d'Auto-Plus.
Une procédure exceptionnelle puisque depuis 60 ans que ce type de presse existe, avec son lot d'exclus parfois données gracieusement par les industriels eux-mêmes et plus souvent envoyés par des salariés d'usine pour arrondir leurs fins de mois.
Preuve que la censure existe partout et une nouvelle fois sous Nicolas Premier, c'est l'anonymat des sources et le métier de journaliste qui est remis en question.
On peut y voir un juste retour des choses de Sarkozy à Renault, après la livraison de la Sarkomobile pour le 14 Juillet, une Vel-Satis rallongée, blindée, équipée des moyens de communication dernier cris pour la bagatelle de 150 000 euros. Que ne ferait on pas pour avoir une ristourne, même pendant les soldes?

Et encore la liste de tous ces abus de pouvoirs par des firmes privés, ces intrusions dans les hautes-sphères du pouvoir, n'est pas exhaustive. On pourrait citer le fond Carlyle, l'entreprise familiale pharmaceutique Servier, évidemment Bolloré, la chambre de compensation ClearStream, JC Decaux et les fameux Vélib (futur article)...
Cette liste "noire" serait malheureusement trop longue pour être traitée ici.

Plus d'infos:
Plainte de Renault ici, l'affaire Adidas là, Red Bull encore ici

     Fournier lived to create sandwiches. He had molded his whole life around the crafting of beautiful sandwiches from single ingredients which by themselves were not extraordinary. A true craftsman, he had an Olympian disdain for the mores and conventions that his industry perpetuated. Hairnets, for example. Fournier would no sooner wear a hairnet than allow himself to be slapped in the face. The other workers, in awe of Fournier, retold among themselves the story of the feckless young manager who had started work at The Deli.

     On the manager’s first day, he had casually asked Fournier to mop the floor right as Fournier was preparing to leave for the night. Fournier paused, stunned, then turned and walked briskly away.

     The next day, Fournier arrived at the deli on time and took his position behind his counter. He stood there, motionless, for the entire day. When a customer ordered, he stared solemnly, not acknowledging the speaker’s existence. Day after day, this continued. Fournier’s loyal regulars finally realized what the insulted craftsman was up to, and they began to fight alongside him. Now his customers would form a line in front of his counter as if to order, but they would not say a word. They would stand silently as long as their schedules allowed.

     Finally, the owner begged Fournier to end his strike. Fournier was implacable until, weeping on his hands and knees, the owner agreed to fire the offending young manager. For days afterward, the sandwiches that Fournier had created were breathtaking to behold.

     Fournier’s only passions were the sandwiches that he created, but they were passions with which he struggled and fought. His Art followed him home from the deli; twisting its way through the city streets into his brain to torment his dreams. The sandwiches were his passion; they were not his joy.

     There was only one being in the world who could bring Fournier close to a state of joy. Her name was Joy, and she worked in the Cinnabon that was upstairs in the food court of the mall.

     The day that they met came in an afternoon that was another in a series of rough afternoons for Fournier. He had been feeling stifled artistically for a long time; he was beginning to feel that all of his patrons were philistines. Then she approached the sandwich counter.

     She was a meek and mild little thing; she seemed to have less substance than a photograph of a reflection. When she stood before the counter, Joy seemed embarrassed to be visible.

     “Excuse me,” she said, “I…I would like a sandwich, please.”

     Fournier grabbed his knife haughtily (he could make any movement seem haughty), and drawled, “And what would you like on it?”     Joy quickly stammered, “Oh, I would never presume to tell an artist what to do.”

     Fournier paused and took a closer look at this delicate porcelain figure that stood before him. There was nothing striking about her; her clothes seemed to be made out of apologies.

     “Yes,” he said quietly, “Yes, that’s absolutely right.”

     Soon these two found themselves caught up in a sort of romance. Fournier devoted an entire series of sandwiches to her, and read love poems to her in a pet cemetery. They would spend their afternoons in coffee shops, discussing Life and Art, and other nouns with capital letters.

     “For what is a ‘Deli’, anyway?” Fournier would ask. “Is it a ‘place’ where one ‘goes’ to buy ‘meat and related products?’ Give me a break.” Joy would sip her mochaccino and listen attentively.

     “These fools, these so-called ‘clients’! They think they know what Art is! Who would know better than I, the Artist? Once a woman ordered a sandwich and I simply spread mayonnaise on a plate and handed it to her. And do you believe, she had the nerve to question my artistic decision? I even debased myself to explain the significance of the piece to her! I explained how what she was buying was the idea of a sandwich, and the material form was irrelevant. But, no! She demanded a conventional sandwich. So I dashed off something quickly in Late Baroque. I tell you, I have never been so sickened in all my life.” Joy sipped her beverage.

     “What’s the matter with you? You’ve been unusually quiet all afternoon.”

     She lowered her eyes and prepared to speak.

     “They’ve…they’ve found my father’s will.” Joy’s father’s will had been lost for many years, presumed destroyed in a series of mysterious fires a decade ago.

     “And?” Fournier queried.

     “And…and…oh, Fournier! There’s a clause that forbids me to marry workers in the deli industry. If I do, I lose all of my inheritance.”

     Fournier rose from the table and staggered backwards. He stumbled out the door of the café.

     As he stormed home, he thought over the discussions that they had frequently had. He had expounded, time and again, upon the evil of money. He had said that to be a poor man who works for a living is the best kind of man that there is. But the tone in her voice told him everything. He knew her choice. Had he not explained his Ideas properly? She could have at least given him some indication once in a while. But she just sat, sipping her damn mochaccino!

     The next day, Fournier awoke in the deli’s walk-in refrigerator. He had spent another night there, after having cried himself to sleep in the potato salad. With a small, choking sob, he wiped the mayonnaise from his meager beard.

      Joy came down to the deli on her lunch hour. Fournier had known that she would. The only indication Fournier gave that this was not an average customer was a sharp intake of breath as she approached. He watched her move closer, consciously attempting to keep his face devoid of emotion.

     “Hello,” she ventured.

     “Good afternoon, Miss,” he said, somewhat louder than necessary.

     She ordered her sandwich quickly. When he handed the box to her, she took it without looking at him. She went to a small table, took out her sandwich, and gasped.

     Fournier had turned away from the counter after she left. He had heard somebody say once that love is making exceptions. He could not bring himself to forgive her act of materialistic transgression, but she had come as close to tempting him as anyone ever would. For when Joy beheld her sandwich, she knew instantly that it was the most beautiful one that Fournier had ever made. She did not know that it was also to be the most beautiful sandwich that he would ever make. 

demonstrates that not only Washington but the other powerful economies of the world are opposed to effective climate action.…

With Washington's posture so retrograde, the policies of other developed country governments appear in a more positive light. But this is an illusion. While Washington has been the most visible obstacle to achieving effective action on climate, the obstructionist role of the other advanced industrial countries has not been insignificant. Japan and Canada, for instance, have retreated from their previous support for a regime of mandatory reductions and saved Washington from total isolation in the negotiations.

The European Union, while it continues to support a mandatory regime, does not appear to be willing to support the cuts of up to [350] by [350] that are necessary to prevent irreversible large-scale climate change. In terms of its approach to reducing carbon emissions, the EU, like the United States, has increasingly given a central role to the corporate-friendly market approach of carbon trading. On the critical issue of providing the South with assistance for technology and adaptation, the EU, again like United States, prefers to channel the relatively little money it has so far been willing to commit not through institutional mechanisms set up under UN auspices but through those established by the World Bank, such as the Bank's Climate Investment Funds. The reason is simple: the North controls the World Bank.

350.

Sur ce site (didier-revient.com), les supporters peuvent faire des promesses de dons afin que le joueur actuellement joueur au chelsea réintègre l'OM. Actuellement, les promesses s'élèvent à plus de 40 millions d'euros.

Selon les fans marseillais la somme suffisante pour faire revenir Didier Droba serait déjà réunie puisque selon eux, il faudrait 28 millions d'euros pour que l'attaquant ivoirien revienne jouer à l'OM.

Mais le président de l'OM (Diouf), rappelle aux supporters que le salaire du joueur est aussi à prendre en compte et donc que la somme requise n'est pas la même.

Enfin, le Drogbathon démontre bien la passion des supporters.

Source : NouvelObs

Eu am un mare avantaj: pot spune în poezie acele lucruri despre mine pe care nici eu nu le ştiu exact, fără să mint. Uneori lucrurile pot fi spuse doar atingându-le. Aşa făcea Domnul Isus când vorbea în pilde. Sau când vindeca bolnavii, atingându-i: vorbea despre o realitate a Sa, realitatea Împărăţiei Sale.

Într-o zi, orice floare de tei se rupe şi cade. Rămâne parfumul ei să mai spună ceva, un timp... Orice gând despre tei sugerează, presupune AROMA de floare de tei. Isus Hristos e AROMA DE DUMNEZEU! Aromele nu mor niciodată. Parfumul unei flori dispare. Aroma însă e ideea despre puterea unei flori, mai mult, însăşi împărăţia acelei flori. Ea nu poate dispărea. Aşa cum nu dispare o oglindă când încetezi să te priveşti în ea.

so, what if i want, now about as many beyond the solstice as were before the equinox when "we" scrambled from the larval shell of sabdariffa this year, what if, because i meant it, when i said at the start of this part that "i quit my job today" and threw a stone forward, maybe this is where it landed and, ah, what do i do with it now, throw it again, what if i want not to play another round of hopscotch.

no that wasn't really what i was thinking. half an hour pause in the middle of that paragraph, thinking about things like

1. cleaning the house into a home
2. preparing mentally and materials for mild missionary work
3. gently gently gently steering my boat

you know because the most depressing thing i encounter, every day, isn't how hard some people are working to prevent the future from being pleasant, it's how fucking hard my routines and habits resist my efforts to break them, out of them, free, because i know -- these truly small things i want that can't get -- but this is only why i'm fucking up. other people, i'm told, have optimism, love for their families, all that shit that supposedly motivates and brings them joy.

every day they sweep the dust out the door and welcome the guests.

"hello," says the dust.

"i swept you outside for a reason," says the people.

"there is no outside," says the dust. "i came to tell you."

the time for sweeping is done and this is the time for rethinking.

ok here i am.

saying, "That's the difference between me and Uribe. For Uribe, the end of the FARC means the reestablishment of peace in Colombia. For me, peace in Colombia will come from social transformations." …

She also praised Hugo Chavez who worked tirelessly to secure her release in an earlier prisoner swap that was scotched by the Bush administration. Bush and Co. believed the exchange would boost Chavez's popularity, so Uribe made sure the deal wasn't consummated. Betancourt said, "It seems to me that Hugo Chávez is magnificent. He can tell the FARC things that they will hear. The FARC didn't like it at all when Chávez told them that the armed struggle in Latin American was obsolete, and that they had to think in a different way." Naturally, Betancourt's remarks about Chavez were not reported in the establishment media.

Betancourt and Chavez are right. Although the revolutionary struggle goes on, hostage-taking subverts the group's larger goal of a society built on laws and human rights. And even though the FARC was pushed out of the political process by a corrupt and ruthless oligarchy, which killed nearly 5,000 of its leaders and union activists, they will not achieve their objectives by adopting the same methods as the right wing paramilitaries they're fighting. It is impossible to defeat crime with more crime.